Bristol’s main Post Office branch in The Galleries shopping centre is to close - and move to a counter inside the nearby branch of WHSmith.

The announcement was made by the Post Office as part of a nationwide move which will see 40 major Crown Post Offices in large towns and cities close.

The news has been greeted with outrage among workers, union leaders, politicians and community campaigners in Bristol, with the secretary of the local Post Office workers union branding the closure ‘a scandal’.

And they have called on the people of Bristol to begin a campaign to save it - by lobbying MPs and councillors and getting involved in the consultation.

Rob Wotherspoon said there would almost certainly be a number of jobs lost from the Post Office, which is located on the top floor of The Galleries shopping centre in Broadmead.

The Galleries Post Office (Image: Michael Lloyd)

And he said he feared while the fully trained Post Office counter staff should be moved across and retain their £12-an-hour salaries, any new staff would be employed by WHSmith at the minimum wage.

The Post Office announced the move, pending a consultation period, with the top line ‘Post Office to expand number of branches in WHSmith Stores’.

The Post Office, which avoided outright privatisation when it split from the Royal Mail under the Coalition Government, already has 135 Post Offices run in WHSmiths stores.

Read More

Under the new agreement, 40 Post Offices - including the one in The Galleries - will be moved to WHSmiths next year.

The Post Office said this would be ‘supporting the long-term sustainability of Post Office branches and bringing in longer opening hours for customers in many areas’.

It was also announced that 33 Post Offices already sited in stores, but currently operated directly by the Post Office - including the one in Kingswood, which closed and moved to WHSmiths last year - would transfer to be operated directly by WHSmith, meaning the Post Office workers would now become WHSmith employees.

“WHSmith and Post Office have worked together successfully for more than a decade and our collaboration helps to secure our services on high streets for years to come," said Post Office network and sales director Roger Gale.

WHSmith in The Galleries (Image: Michael Lloyd)

“We’re continuing to respond to unprecedented change on high streets and in consumer trends.

“By adapting to the needs of customers we’re making sure Post Offices will matter as much tomorrow as they do today, with services available when and where people want them, in convenient locations and open for longer hours, including Sundays.

“The vast majority of the Post Office’s network of 11,500 Post Office branches, large and small, are run on a franchise or agency basis with retailers as part of thriving businesses.

“It makes sense to further expand this successful, sustainable way of providing Post Office services to customers,” he added.

Read More

A Post Office spokesperson confirmed there were 23 members of staff who had been notified they were affected by the decision. Some would transfer to WHSmith’s employ, while others could be redeployed to other branches or given ‘voluntary settlement’.

Rob Wotherspoon, the secretary of the CWU Communications Workers Union that represents Post Office workers, described the closure as ‘a scandal’.

He said the Galleries Post Office was always busy, well-used and ‘much-loved’.

“It is the largest Post Office in the South West. This has been coming a long time, but we thought the Post Office would want to keep its biggest branch in the region’s biggest city. If this goes, it will show that no Post Office anywhere is safe,” he said.

CWU union campaigners lobby to save the Post Office in The Galleries in 2016

Nationally, it will mean 700 jobs being lost, Mr Wotherspoon said.

“Staff members in this once great public institution have been sounding the alarm for several years that the Post Office is being run into the ground. Now they face losing their jobs to be replaced with workers on minimum wage,” he added.

“It is now clear that no office is safe as 1/3 of the network faces privatisation through the back door.

“It beggars belief that the thriving Galleries Post Office will be moved into a WHSmiths that appears to be perpetually empty. Given the recent announcements of WHSmith closures around the country no one will be reassured that these vital services are safe. This year, Post Office Executives have awarded themselves huge pay rises – apparently they expect hard working Post Office members and the public to foot the bill.

Read More

“This is privatisation through the back door and there is no doubt now that the Post Office Crown network is facing extinction.

“The elderly and vulnerable people in communities who rely on these services are obviously of no interest to a callous government that has overseen the destruction of this public service over the last eight years.

"They've been doing this process at a brutal pace, and it's a scandal. We want people to join us in actively doing something about this.

“We urge people to take part in the public consultation and contact their local councillors and MPs to voice their opposition to this reckless proposal,” he added.